Shopping Hanoi style and a Vietnamese Cooking Class

We arrived into Ha Noi in the middle of the night and walked to our hotel, just around the corner. There was huge confusion over our check in time and which part of the hotel we should be in and unfortunately we had to wake some of the staff in order to get access to our room. The hotel was lovely and a very nice birthday treat for me, thank you :) After a rest, we set out to explore Ha Noi...

I loved the winding streets and flags that were on display. There is definitely a European influence in the architecture and it was fun to explore the streets and districts - many of the streets solely sell one thing, like silk, metal work, paper, etc.

Loved the flags!

 Paper lantern street!

Herb street

 I loved some of the old, crumbly, colonial buildings and found it really fun to just look up and take photos!

"It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; its the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time." - David Allan Coe

"Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves." -  Julia Morgan

Along the road there were a few little ornamental gems like this one too... 

 I just loved the pretty little roads, especially this one...

 ...and in another spot this old shop front...

Pho stalls and street food was everywhere. 

 We chilled out and had a lovely massage, and managed to each buy something from silk road. One night we ate in the hotel, where the food is some of the best in Ha Noi and the other night we headed out to this little restaurant (Little Ha Noi) with amazingly strange ornaments, it was like eating in a very odd museum or an eccentric collectors shop from years ago, great fun!

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney

 Clocks and mirrors and armoirs, oh my!

 Bird cages (no birds) on the ceiling.

 All in all a wonderful oddity of curiosities.

On our way to the airport we managed to squeeze in a food / market tour and cooking class. 

We took the class from Hidden Hanoi, and it was a really great experience. We were taken to the nearest market, over the road and shown lots of food stalls and foods both on the way and once there.

The guide shared that there are several types of market: Travelling (those on mobile transport), frog (those that pop up here and there and are mobile and can pack up at a moments notice, likely shouldn't be selling where they are!), wet (selling fresh meet and produce market) and wholesale (businesses).

Travelling market.

Frog  market. 

Then we went on to the wet market to see fruit, veg, herbs, meat and fish.

Just through the door there was a stall selling coconut in lots of different ways. from  raw to creme, to flaked and sugared, milk and oil, Amazing.

"The two basic items necessary to sustain life are sunshine and coconut milk."- Dustin Hoffman

The balance of yin and yang is apparently important in food and herbs help balance this.

They LOVE their mint in Vietnam and here are about 4 types of it, the mint we get in the UK and three others. The one on the left is called fish mint and it does have a distinct fishy taste (not a fan!!)

Everyday, early in the morning a pig will be slaughtered and by lunch all the meat is sold, they try and sell it as soon as possible so its as fresh as possible. If needed another will be slaughtered at lunch for the afternoon sales. They don't have fridges, but the meat is pretty fresh. It is also way cooler here than in Cambodia, so easier for meat to stay fresh.

There was so much to see....

Lots of fish in small bowls being kept 'alive' until needed by a customer - this made me really sad.

Quails eggs, squid, mealworms...

...flour, eggs...

...meat and veg...

...fruit to be carried around in baskets...

...kettles boiling on open fires...

...grilled bananas.

As in Cambodia there are so many different foods compared to the UK.

Pears,melons, oranges, plums, dragon fruit, limes and something else!

Custard apple (yum!)

More fish...

...shellfish,,,

...squid...

...cockles....

More fruit...avocado?

...banana flower...

...tumeric, ginger  or galangal?...

...even more herbs!...

I cant even remember what this is! 

And all the condiments to make it spicy and flavoursome!

This stall sold fake items for funerals. To ensure people have everything they need in the next world they burn effigies of things from this world - houses, cars, money etc.

Making and selling rice noodles in different thicknesses- all done by hand.

We bought and ate a custard apple and a star apple/ milk fruit. Both delicious.

Soon we headed back to Hidden Hanoi and started our cooking class for fresh spring rolls and Pho.

You flame the ginger for the Pho stock.

Tomato rosettes.

Fresh spring rolls. Not a bad attempt!

Delicious Pho. The process of making bone broth and getting all the ingredients just so is quite time consuming, but I love this fresh spicy soup!

Fruit for desert, mango and pomelo (like grapefruit though not as sour or bitter).

Our class was a lovely way to say goodbye to Vietnam and straight after we headed to the airport. 

We landed in Cambodia and the next few days were spent relaxing, making lists and planning projects for the coming year ( as is our January tradition), having spa treatments, visiting the acrobatic circus (Phare) and generally getting some R n R before it was time to sadly say goodbye.

"Saying goodbye doesn't mean anything. It's the time we spent together that matters"- Trey Parker